“I haven’t felt this out of it in awhile! Like today I didn’t want to move… I wanted to stay in bed all day and not do anything, but then I hated the fact that we didn’t do anything which is silly”
Author: twirlingamongroses
A Lady at the Opera
“BOOM”
I jumped in my swivel chair as the curling iron I was holding exploded in my hands. Sparks flew into my lap as the lights suddenly switched off.
“Oh come ON”
I whispered to myself as I surveyed the damage. Clearly the converter didn’t exactly convert and I was now faced with the grim reality that my hair was only halfway done and I would have to go to the opera with half straight/half curly hair.
They say hindsight is 20/20. Well, when I was blow-drying my hair I really should have taken note of the fact that it was WAY hotter than normal, BUT at the time I counted it as a blessing for someone with thick and unruly hair.
Fast forward to my call to the concierge.
“Yes, hi! So I think I accidentally blew up my room with my curling iron….” *concierge replies* “… no I already tried the lights and they just don’t work! I’m SO so sorry, but I really have to leave for the opera. Can you just let yourself in?”
If there was ever a definition of a Flight Attendant it would 100% be the above sentence. “Sorry I have to catch the opera but please do hurry and fix the room that I just completely destroyed in this 4 star hotel – ta ta now”
Meet Holly.
The person that replies to your message saying, “Let’s go to the opera in London… by the way I’m going to wear a vintage fur coat” with… “I just so happen to have my vintage leopard coat with me and my opera gloves – it’s a date”.
And with that we crawled into a taxi and were whisked through the brightly lit streets of London to “The Balcon”. A truly magical place that has a cocktail list based on fairy tales.
There are certain moments where reality becomes blurred with a dream. It’s the moment you find yourself sipping on a pink cocktail called “Satine’s Dilemma” based on “The Moulin Rouge” and you look out the window and see the Christmas lights twinkling over the streets of London.
I find it really hard sometimes to do what makes me happy. It can feel so selfish. Yes I love my job, yes I love my life, but so often I find that it’s been months since I’ve consciously set out to do something that’s uniquely “Christena”.
Something that simply brings my soul joy. It can be as simple as getting an overpriced Starbucks drink just because or listening to the “Cinderella” soundtrack over and over because let’s face it, it’s my favorite music of all time. But in this case it was wearing my favorite dress and heels even if I was impossibly overdressed, spending an evening with a friend who became even more dear as we discovered so many similarities and swooning over the awe-inspiring talent of “Phantom of the Opera”.
Perhaps this is all sounding so cliche to you, but stepping into my hotel room tonight I can’t help but smile thinking about how magical it felt to just chase after what my heart loves. I hope this week you chase after something, no matter the size, that your heart and soul loves. I just pray that it doesn’t involve you blowing up your curling iron.
XOXO,
Christena
A Lady In Ireland: Part 2
It’s absolutely crazy to think I started writing a blog almost 10 years ago. Continue reading “A Lady In Ireland: Part 2”
A Lady In Ireland: Part 1
“This cannot be happening to me right now”, I murmured as I stared at the bumper to bumper traffic in front of me.
I had left my house three hours ahead of my flight time, how on earth was it possible that I was facing the reality of missing my flight to Ireland?
Because I’m Christena that’s why? Continue reading “A Lady In Ireland: Part 1”
A Lady in Leiden
*Yelling in Dutch*
Melanie and I froze in our seats on the train while a train employee continued yelling at us.
I looked at Mel and looked back at the train man. We had our tickets, we weren’t being obnoxious. What in the world could we have possibly done to deserve this? Continue reading “A Lady in Leiden”
A Lady In Germany
What had happened was… I was supposed to be flying to Sacramento.
There I was just minding my own business driving to work. Hands at 10 and 2.
Not texting.
Not doing my makeup.
Not checking Insta (all things I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve done while driving)
And out of thin air, literally, a giant black steel grate was hurtling through the air straight towards my car.
You know in “Over the Hedge” when the squirrel has had WAY too much caffeine and the world goes into slo-mo. That is pretty much the best way to describe this moment.
The moment where I looked to my right, saw a car next to me cruising along. Looked to my left and saw a cement wall and then wrapped my fingers around the steering wheel and plowed ahead.
There was an unmistakable *POP* and if there was a marquis of neon letters marching across the car displaying my thoughts you would see, “Hm… I made it, that wasn’t too bad”.
I uncurled my fingers and felt pretty proud of myself for running over a steel grate and other than a small noise, not really being all that bothered.
Better pull off the highway just to make sure my little car is A-okay. I pulled off and to my complete dismay I had blown a tire and not just that, there was this gross liquid pouring out of my car.
Obviously the next step was to call Danny hysterically crying that my life was over and that I was going to get fired from my job… except I couldn’t get ahold of Danny, but I DID get ahold of his mom. Meaning all of the above sobbing and boo-hoo-ing was done to his sweet mom.
All of this to say, dating Danny is INCREDIBLE because not only do I now know how to change a tire in my Flight Attendant uniform, I now know how to drive his stick shift car, and how towing companies work. To top off that list I can now say I’ve ordered a transmission fluid box online and a tire from Amazon. Who knew Amazon delivers tires?
This blog post is entitled “A Lady in Germany” because instead of being able to work that day I picked up a trip to Munich later on in the week.
Here’s some pictures of “The Residenz” which has to be the most gorgeous palace I’ve ever seen. So you see, everything does have a silver lining. I got in a car wreck and ended up in Germany.
XOXO,
Christena
Questions You’ve Always Wanted To Ask Your Flight Attendant
“Oh hey… I know you don’t I?”
I froze mid-step in my red dress and heels and stared at the person speaking to me in the Paris airport. It was none other than Drew Barrymore waving at me from the coffee shop I was about to walk into.
Continue reading “Questions You’ve Always Wanted To Ask Your Flight Attendant”
The Lady On The Plane
“Well ladies and gentleman we’ve got this adorable black and white houndstooth suitcase that someone left in the jet bridge, if you could please ring your call light if this is yours we would greatly appreciate it. Otherwise I sure hope we’re the same size.” Continue reading “The Lady On The Plane”
A Lady In Hawaii
Flight Attendants aren’t normal. In fact I would go so far to compare us to unicorns because really… how crazy is it that my friends and I flew from all different parts of the United States to Honolulu for free. Continue reading “A Lady In Hawaii”
A Lady In Zurich
Remember that time when my entire crew including the pilots of an international flight pulled the worlds largest prank on me mid-flight? When I embarrassed myself in front of 300 passengers? I haven’t told y’all? Continue reading “A Lady In Zurich”
